Gmail Update Causes Privacy Concerns

Gmail Update Causes Privacy Concerns

The latest Gmail update will allow users to send messages directly to other Gmail accounts, regardless of whether the recipient has shared their email address.

The new feature will include everyone who is signed up to Gmail and Google+.

The change has caused concern among some privacy campaigners, who say people could be contacted by strangers, yet Google have said it will make it easier for people to communicate with friends.

Marc Rotenberg, Privacy campaigner of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, called the new feature 'troubling'.

He said: "There is a strong echo of the Google Buzz snafu" referring to an early incarnation of the company's social network, which initially made a list of Gmail users' contacts available publicly online.